Posted on 11/09/2010 7:39:50 AM PST by MissTed
When Alexandra Reyes' father caught her wearing her sister's shoes and clothes, he tied her up and beat her with spiked pieces of a tree.
"It was so horrible, I would scream," Reyes said in Spanish. "He told me he had a son, not a daughter, and he did not accept me."
Reyes, 32, was born a boy named Carlos but began living life as a girl at age 8, infuriating her traditional Mayan family in Cenotillo, Mexico. One night, an aunt walked into Reyes' bedroom and tried to kill her with a machete because she didn't want Reyes in the family.
The Mexican police wouldn't arrest Reyes' abusers. So 10 years ago, she paid a smuggler to get her across the border. She walked four days and four nights through the desert into the U.S. and made it to Colorado, where a friend told her she would be safe.
Now, she gets to stay here.
Last week, an immigration judge granted Reyes a form of asylum that allows her to stay in the U.S. based on the persecution she suffered as a transgender woman in Mexico.
The Board of Immigration Appeals withheld her removal from the U.S. after determining the Mexican government would not protect her from abuse if she was deported.
"It would be physically dangerous for her to walk down the street," said her attorney, Bryon Large. "She could be sexually assaulted."
As a condition of her asylum, Reyes must obey the law and can't leave the U.S. for any reason if she hopes to be allowed back in.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services does not keep statistics on the numbers of transgender immigrants granted asylum. But Large said the relief Reyes got is rare for a Mexican national because some immigration judges think there is tolerance for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Mexico.
Same-sex marriage is allowed in Mexico City, and many gay tourists flock to beach resorts throughout the country, leading to the misconception that the country is welcoming, said Large, who argues that pockets of intolerance abound in rural Mexico.
In defending Reyes, one of the cases Large used to persuade the board was of a gay Mexican immigrant who fled to Canada but was denied asylum. After he was deported back to Mexico, he was killed.
Asylum is easier to obtain for immigrants from countries such as Jamaica, where gays are imprisoned, or Iran, where members of the LGBT community are executed, Large said.
Reyes found herself in trouble last year after she bilked a cab driver out of a $500 fare. The cabbie drove her from Aurora to Breckenridge and back, but a friend she was meeting declined to pay the fare as promised.
Reyes went to the cab company a week later to pay the bill, and the company called the police, who then called Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"I am still ashamed," she said.
Reyes paid restitution in the cab driver case. In the meantime, she was moved to an immigration detention facility in Aurora for deportation proceedings.
Biologically male, Reyes spent 11 months in custody housed with men, but she says she was treated well and didn't have any problems despite a lack of privacy.
Reyes' case was referred to Large by the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, and he began working pro bono to gain her release and asylum.
For now, Reyes is sharing an apartment in Aurora with friends and waiting to receive a work permit from the government.
She takes female hormones but has not yet had sexual reassignment surgery. She finds the American people accepting of her differences.
"What I have seen here is people are more open than people from my country," she said. "Sometimes I miss Mexico, but I am scared to return."
Reyes is trying to learn English and deciding what kind of work she wants to do.
"I want others to know that nothing is impossible," she said.
It occurs to me that “journalists” consider themselves tellers of truth and then they call a boy “her” and “she” without a second thought.
What does the DNA have to say?
By what?????
OMG! Isn’t that Michelle Obama?
Doing the drag shows Americans from New Orleans won’t do.
Good question.
They would argue even looking at it crooked would be considered a sex crime and u ask by what check this one out from yesterday....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2623985/posts
Calling a mutilated male “she” doesn’t make it so. But it’s annoying!
I want an end to don’t ask, don’t tell in America’s newsrooms.
Homosexuals should be out with the public and let them know why they find the homosexual agenda to be a key issue since it impacts 2% of society.
We need to send more illegal immigrants to Canada. They have socialized medicine.
They don't want to pay for these sorts of things either.
Living like a girl at 8 yrs.old??? What on earth?
As a woman it offends me when a transgendered male-to-female is called a “woman” or “she” or “her”,etc.
Amen,brother!
No kidding. Chop off some parts, stick in some implants and tada! you’re a woman - riiight. I know one that bemoans the effects of the hormones he has to take. Seriously? These people don’t have a clue about being a woman. Ticks me off too.
One thing I’d like to see is a man,who has “Become” a “woman”,trying to put on a pair of pantyhose. It’s a very delicate procedure,as we ladies know.
*snort* Or stockings, for that matter.
Especially the ones with the garter belts...I’ve never worn those ‘cause they seem like they’d be a pain.What I hate is when I buy a new pair of pantyhose and the first time I put them on they get a run in them.Arrgh!Some of them are almost 4 bucks a pair at Wal-Mart.Sheesh!
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